Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-01-14
A COCAINE SPREE.
ASTONISHING EXPERIMENTS
WITH THE DRUG.
There Isn't any Cocaine Habit, a
Doctor Says, but Very Power
full Cocaine Exhilaration-
Describing His Feelings.


press purpose of finding out. The local |
anesthetic properties of cocaine have
been known but a short time, and 1t has
been charged that the use of the drug
induces habit similar to the opium
habit, which holds its victims in abject
slavery.
"At first injected one grain, and ex
perienced an Cxhilnration of spirits sim
liar to that produced by two or three
glasses of champagne, said DIR. Ham
mond to a Sun reporter. 'My powers
of imagination increased. The physical
sensation was a delightful, undulating
thrill. l was N very h0ppy frame OF
mind-a sociable mood-and no doubt
would have been quite agreeable COM
pany. The after effects were inability
to sleep until in the morning, and
a headache when l got up. The
next night l took two grains, and, in adj
dltion to the sensations described, felt
a desire to write had begun letter
to friend, and under the influence of
the drug l extended what would have
been missive of moderate length to an
epistle covering wide variety of top
les and forty-eight pages of paper. 1t
proved to be correctly written and CO
herent, and gave much satisfaction to-
the receiver, but found that | had
treated diffusely of many things that
ordinarily l would not deem worth
mentioning. If man were DESTROYS of
writing to fill space, or utterly exhaust
ing a given sub ,ect even to the most
trivial details, would recommend him
to fill his inkstaud, get rcam or two of
paper and plenty of pens, and have
physician give him hypodermic injec-
ton of cocaine. If you want to condcnse
your subject, don't take cocaine in large
doses. No doubt moderate quantity
taken in wine will stimulate the magma
ton and enable one to write more brill
iantly and with less effort than he other
wise could. The difference between
cocaine and alcohol as stimulants is that
alcohol has tendency to lower the men
tai and moral tone and brutaliAe the ma
ture, while cocaine has a refining, soften
ing effect. Under the influence of mod
crate doses l became rather sentimental
and said nice thin IS to everybody. The
world was going very well, and | had
favorable opinion of my fellow men and
women. There was not a bit of pug
nacity about me, and | didn't want to
fight, argue or dispute with any one.
THE next time increased the dose to
three grains, which numbered my
tongue in the most astonishing way. |
wanted Ito talk, and l did talk, not in
the oratorical manner, but l was just
purely loquacious. When nobody was
present I talked to myself. There was no
\ &c l,o al
no disorder of the process of thought.
talked coherently and correctly, and l
am certain that if had been in the lee
ture room should have sp ken much
better than l usually speak. was per-
fectly able to restrain the impulse to
talk, but it was pleasant to speak, and |
enjoyed myself highly. There was an
abnormal quickening of the faculties;
the minds operations were rapid, and
the Imagination vivid. Headache fol-
| lowed.
Then l doubled the quantity of the
cocaine, and became somewhat intoxi-
Gated. The scribbling propensity re-
turned, and ;wrote unanimously. l
was preparing medical work, and my
mind was full of the subject matter.
|
book, and thought it very brilliant
production. Ideas came thick and fast,
and was persuaded that my compost
ton work was going to eclipse anything
that had ever done in that line. When
l put it away and went to bed, con-
graduated myself that should be sat
ished with my nights work when l
should read it over. | didn't sleep at
all that night. When looked over my
famous introduction found it to be ar
rant nonsense. Each sentence was COM
plete and coherent in itself, but none
had any relation TO the others, although
all were in the general line of the sub
iect l was treating in the book. The
stuff read as a whole very much like a
dream. 1t was mess of ragged, dis
connected ideas and notions, set down
in disorderly fashion, and containing
matter that did not belong to an intro
duction. But in spite of the rampant
disorder of ideas, | had no hallucna-
tions such as are produced by hasheesh,
no grotesque delusions or insane mag
inings. The material machinery was
running with the governor belt thrown
off and the brain raced, so to speak.
Eight grains three nights later produced
similar effects, but did not write, and
the sensations became rather painful
than agreeable.
THE next night determined to make
more severe test, AID so subjected
eighteen grains within twenty minutes.
The results were stunning. ! became in
tensely exhiarated and finally oblivious.
What 1 did, or thought, or felt, don't
know, except from circImstant!al evil
dence. l got to bed in some way. In
the morning I found the brary in dis
order. All the volumes OF two large
cyclopgdias were opened and scattered
about the floor, as though | had been
searching for something and could not
find it. I had not the slightest recol-
lection of touching book or wanting to
look up anything. Any brilliant idea
might have had under the influence of
eighteen grains of cocaine is irrecover-
ably lost to the world But have vivid
remembrance of a most preposterous
headache that lasted two days and re-
fused to succumb to cold baths. cured
! it with strong coffee. Then l stopped
the experiments. l acquired no habit
and had no difficulty in quitting the use
of cocaine.
zone singular effect of cocaine is that
| it will induce people to speak who are
: afflicted with silent melancholia. A
} woman who had not spoken for nine
months began to talk within four
; minutes later. had injected four grains,
and in ten minutes she talked at rate
that made up for lost time. Nothing
could stop her. Whether this property
nf nnnninn in Gil nnh dnsirahln de.